Understanding where Outlook contacts are stored
A topic of confusion seen frequently relates to contact folders in terms of how many are created, where these are stored and how this integrates with the auto-complete cache. The focus on this article is on Outlook ‘2013/’2016
Overview of how Outlook contact folders are created
The first email account configured in an Outlook profile will result in a complete set of folders being created in the folder tree which include contact/calendar folders. These contact/calendar folders become the default contact/calendar folders for the profile regardless of the type (POP3, Imap, Exchange/Outlook.com) of email account being configured.
POP Accounts
Contact/calendar folders will only be created for the first POP account configured providing that no other email account has already been configured. Subsequent POP3 accounts added to the profile will not have contact/calendar folders in the associated PST files for the account (assuming that a new PST file is being used for each POP account).
IMAP accounts (OL’2013/’2016),
If the IMAP account is the first email account configured, contact/calendar folders will be added to the underlying associated .ost file with the added words “This Computer Only” in the folder description. It’s really not a good idea to maintain data in folders marked as “This Computer Only” since if the Imap account is deleted, the associated .ost file is also automatically deleted resulting in the data contained io “This Computer Only” folders being permanently lost unless you have manually and explicitly backed up these folders by exporting them to a PST file using Outlook’s export wizard. If Outlook cannot find/read the ost file assciated with the account, a new one will automatically be created, the email folders will be sync’d with the server and the contact/calendar folders will be empty.
An .ost file can only be opened by the original Outlook profile/email account that was used to create the .ost file so backing up the .ost file on its own is of no use since a 3rd party OST2PST conversion program would be required to access the data in the file.
There are several options to protect against permanent loss of contact/calendar data stored in an IMAP .ost file. See the following
How to Protect Outlook ‘2013/’2016 Imap Contact/Calendar Data
How to sync POP3/IMAP contact/calendar data
IMAP accounts (OL’2010 and earlier)
Earlier versions of Outlook use two different PST files to store data. The first stores the email data for the account which is sync’d with the server. If this PST file cannot be found, a new one will be automatically created. The second contains the contact/calendar folders which will be local to that machine (Outlook install). Unlike OL’2013/’2016, if the IMAP account is removed from the profile, the associated PST file containg the contact/calendar data is not automatically deleted so there is no risk of permanent loss
Exchange/Outlook.com accounts
Each Exchange/Outlook.com account will always have a full set of folders created in its own associated .ost file and all folders are sync’d with the server including contact/calendar folders. If the .ost file is ever deleted, Outlook will recreate the file and resync all the data. Similarly if the email account is removed from the Outlook profile, the same thing will occur when the account is re-added to Outlook.
Overview of where contacts are stored
a) If you select a specific contact folder and then click on <New Contact> from within that folder, then the contact will be saved to that specific folder whether or not it happens to be the default contact folder for the profile.
b) If you choose to add a contact from anywhere else (i.e. selecting an email address from an email message, right-clicking the email address and choosing “Add to Outlook contacts”, it will be added to the default contact folder for the profile
c) If you enter an email address in the To/CC/Bcc box when composing an email message, the entry will be added to the auto-complete cache only. No contact item is created in any contact folder.
d) If the iCloud addin is being used, a separate contact folder will be created and all contacts from the default contact folder will be moved to the newly created folder. That will result in an empty addressbook until the iCloud folder is set to be a member of the AB or the contacts are manually copied back to the default contact folder.
Category: Understanding Outlook
